U.S.

U.S. teen Mikaela Shiffrin wins historic Olympic slalom gold

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia -- Normally
so composed, so in control, so not-very-teenlike on and off the slopes, Mikaela
Shiffrin suddenly found herself in an
awkward position halfway through the second leg of the Olympic slalom.

Guilty, perhaps, of charging too hard
as she swayed this way and that around the course's gates, Shiffrin briefly lost her balance. Her left
ski rose too far off the snow. Her chance at a gold medal in the event she's
dominated for two years was about to slip away.

"Yeah, that was pretty terrifying for me. There I was, I'm like "Grreat. I'm just going to go win my first medal.' And then in the middle of the run, I'm like 'Guess not,'" the American said with a laugh Friday night. "So, like, 'No. Don't do that. Do not give up. You see this through.' My whole goal was to just keep my skis moving."

Somehow, she did just that. Shiffrin stayed upright, gathered herself and,
although giving away precious time there, was able to make a big lead from the
first leg stand up. She won by more than a half-second to become, at 18, the
youngest slalom champion in Olympic history.

"It's going to be something that
I chalk up as one of my favorite experiences for the rest of my life," Shiffrin said. "But my life's not over
yet."

Sharyn Alfonsi, who recently
profiled Shiffrin for a segment on 60 Minutes Sports, says that coaches credit Shiffrin's mother Eileen, a masters ski champion, for Mikaela’s steady style.
Eileen is a constant presence on the mountain when her daughter competes.

"The biggest reason I'm around
is because I'm her mom," she told Alfonsi. "And in a normal world, I
would be around."

Alfonsi asked the rising star if she
was peaking too early.

Shiffrin's response: "I’m just
getting started, guys."

Shiffrin outraced the best
skiers in the world down a floodlit Rosa Khutor course, knocking aside gates
with her neon yellow pole handles. She was fastest in the first run, then
sixth-fastest in the second, for a combined time of 1 minute, 44.54 seconds.

A pair of Austrians won silver and bronze:
Marlies Schild was 0.53 behind Shiffrin,
and Kathrin Zettel was 0.81 back. At 32, Schild is the oldest Olympic slalom
medalist ever - old enough to have been someone Shiffrin
looked up to as, well, even more of a kid than she is now.

She holds the record with 35 career
World Cup slalom wins and now owns three Olympic medals in the discipline, two
silvers and a bronze.

"You know what's surreal? That
Marlies and Mikaela are on a podium together," said Shiffrin's father, Jeff. "Marlies, she's
battled, she's had injuries, but she's been the queen of slalom. Mikaela has
said, 'I've channeled Marlies.'"

Shiffrin has won nine of the
last 19 World Cup or world championship slaloms; no one else has won more than
two in that span. Last year, her slalom world title made her the youngest
champion in any event since 1985.

Talk about precocious. And
serious-minded, too. Since she was about 13, Shiffrin
has jotted down thoughts in notebooks, about skiing, yes, but also about what
sorts of questions might arise from reporters.

"I first met her when she was 16,
and I realized right away that she is one of a kind," said Roland Pfeifer,
the U.S. women's technical coach. "She wants to know everything about
skiing. The way she trains, the volume she trains, she probably is 25
already."

Shiffrin got a cold while in
Russia, so she spent Friday morning drinking orange juice and trying to relax.

After her terrific opening run, she
listened to music and did word searches.

In her Olympic debut, Tuesday's giant
slalom, Shiffrin finished fifth. But
the slalom is her specialty.

"I did envision this moment so
many times," said Shiffrin, who
wore a stars-and-stripes "USA" temporary tattoo on her neck. "On
the chairlift ride to the start in the second run, I started crying a little
bit. I started tearing up, because I was like, 'This actually might happen, and
I don't know what to think if it does.'"

Older, more accomplished racers
faltered.

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Maria
Hoefl-Riesch of Germany was in second after the afternoon's opening run but
faded to fourth in what she said would be her last Winter Games race.

Tina Maze of Slovenia, who won Sochi
golds in the downhill and giant slalom, went from third in the opening leg to
eighth.

Shiffrin's gold gave the
United States five Alpine medals, second to Austria's seven. With one event
remaining, the men's slalom Saturday, it's the second-highest total for the
U.S., after eight in 2010. That American team, though, had Lindsey Vonn, now
sidelined by knee surgery.

For quite some time, Shiffrin has been likened to Vonn, the
four-time World Cup champion and two-time Olympic medalist.

Both are based in Colorado. Both are
charismatic. Both were successful early and marked for greatness.

"People have said that I'm 'the
next Lindsey Vonn' several times, and it's the same thing with being 'the young
Tina Maze' or whoever. It's amazing to be compared to them, and I'm really
honored to have that comparison. But I don't want to be 'the young Tina Maze'
or 'the next Lindsey Vonn,'" she said. "I want to be Mikaela Shiffrin."